Pictured left-right: UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: AP / Reuters

By Robert Stevens
3 November 2016

Speaking to Parliament’s Defence Committee, Conservative Defence Minister Michael Fallon declared that the UK’s armed forces would be prepared for a military conflict with Russia as soon as 2018.

Fallon was giving evidence to the committee as part of its review into how the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review affects the Army. His statement was prompted by an observation by Conservative Defence Committee member James Gray, who noted that in a book published earlier this year retired British general Sir Richard Shirreff had predicted a possible war with Russia in 2017. Shirreff was NATO’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe between 2011 and 2014.

Gray also pointed to a letter published by Shirreff in Monday’s Times in which he warned that the military encirclement of Russia had to proceed more rapidly. “Last week’s defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels heard further announcements of the make-up of the forward presence [in the Baltic States and eastern Poland], but the reality is that there will be nothing on the ground until the late spring, nearly a year after the announcement was made,” Shirreff wrote. “What matters now is putting in place, as rapidly as possible, a defensive capability that can fight, and therefore deter, any Russian adventurism; a task for one of the many NATO Rapid Deployment Corps?”

While replying that Shirreff’s book was “very good”, Fallon replied, “I don’t agree that war with Russia is likely next year. I think that is too extreme.”

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